Big second-half rally pushes Butler over Neosho, 82-62

The Butler men trailed Neosho by double digits in the second half before roaring back to take an 82-62 win over the Panthers on Wednesday night at the Power Plant.

The Grizzlies outscored Neosho 58-31 in the second half.

Neosho scored the first seven points of the game before Butler stormed back to take a 17-16 lead on an alley oop dunk by Tyrone Coley on an assist from Daviyon Dennis with 12:58 to play in the first half.

Butler's biggest lead of the first half came at 20-18 after a layup by Immanuel Allen with 10:59 left in the first half. The Grizzlies, however, would go more than seven minutes before scoring again. In the meantime, Neosho scored 11 straight to lead 29-20 and the Panthers went into halftime up 31-24.

Neosho scored the first four points of the second half and pushed its lead to 35-24 with 19:26 left in the game.

Butler still trailed 47-41 with 13:40 to play before the Grizzlies began to rally. Butler scored 10 straight points with four points from both Mohamed Fofana and Immanuel Allen during that stretch.

That was part of a 25-5 run for Butler. When Jon'il Fugett made a pair of free throws with 2:17 left, Butler led by 20 for the first time at 79-59.

Immanuel Allen led Butler with 23 points. It is his third game in the past four with 21 or more points. He is averaging 19 points a game in that stretch. Daviyon Dennis and Kamron Brice both had double-doubles. Dennis had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Brice had 15 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. Jon'il Fugett had 10 points.

Butler improves to 15-12 on the season, ensuring the team will finish .500 or better on the season. The Grizzlies are 8-10 in Jayhawk East Conference play. Butler will be off this weekend and will return to action a week from now with a road game at Cowley before playing the final game of the regular season at home against Coffeyville on Saturday, Feb. 23.